Disclaimer: As everyone knows, Tite Kubo owns Bleach and everything to it. He can own this fanfic as well, if he makes this pair canon. XD

Chapter one

Identity Issues

The phone call came at three o'clock in the morning and special agent Ichigo Kurosaki was out of breath when he answered it:

"Kurosaki."

"Why are you out of breath?" Keygo's annoying voice shrieked from the other end of the line. "Are you having sex? Are you having kinky gay sex and you answer in the middle of it?" Ichigo scrunched his nose in an attempt to calm the headache that always started when stupid Keygo was calling him.

"I'll hang up in a second, if you don't tell me what this is about."

"Sorry. Cap needs to see you. It's urgent."

"At this hour?" Ichigo scowled, although there was no one around. "Does he know I'm on leave?"

"Of course he knows that, Ichigo, don't be an idiot. He did sign the goddamn request, but something big has come up. Really big."

"Fine. I'll be there in half an hour."

"Make it twenty." Keigo said and then hang up, leaving Ichigo to roll his eyes into nothingness.

He went straight to the shower. There was no point of pretending that he was sleeping. He hasn't slept for more than three hours a night for a very long time. Ichigo sighed heavily as the spray hit his back, soothing him and washing down his dark thoughts, at least for a short period. Around four years ago, after he lost his family to a car accident, he quitted his job as a regular police officer and entered Unit 3, also known as Substitute Squad. There were no more than twenty people assigned to this squad, mostly for security issues. You couldn't trust many people when your life was on the line. Not that his life was worth much nowadays.

He dried himself and dressed with efficient moves. Ten minutes later, he was out of the house and his unassuming car merged into the lazy traffic of Tokyo. He drove in silence for a while, the radio just a still presence in the darkness of the car. He scowled at a driver and postponed taking an exist just so he could rattle the guy some more. Sometimes Ichigo was petty like that.

He was still a bit bothered by the fact that his captain called him out for duty when he officially was assigned to a job desk and some time off, after his last mission went terribly wrong. Not that he wasn't happy that the ring surrounding those illegal fights and prostitution was pulverized after his work was done, but that bastard Zaraki Kenpachi and his lieutenant were still out there, probably licking their wounds and ready to start all over as Osaka would become their ring of power again.

For almost two years, Ichigo posed as a fighter with nothing left to lose, ready to piss on his life and health as long as he would have something to do and someone to pummel. And it worked. Ichigo Shinamori was a ruthless warrior, who would gradually take down any fighter, no matter how much experience in the ring they had or how much bigger than him they were. Soon, that attracted the attention of Kenpachi and his cronies and not long after, he became an important member of their inner circle, being offered fights and women and then men when they found out about his preferences. All of their victims were trafficked and Ichigo was suicidal for most of that mission.

When everything went down, he was shot, supposedly by a rival gang and then one day later, while he was still in hospital in induced coma, the squad was able to make almost two hundred arrests. The good news was that they were able to free most of the victims and returned them to their teary families. The bad news was that Kenpachi had escaped and disappeared into thin air. Nobody blamed Ichigo for it and soon Ichigo Shinamori retreated to Tokyo and lost himself in the underbelly there.

His hands clenched on the steering wheel. If he had been there, he would have been able to make the arrest, but his captain didn't agree as he deemed the situation too dangerous for him to be present when all the arrest were made. Unfortunately, the sniper that was supposed to take him down made a terrible miscalculation and he spent three days in induced coma to fight the infection that had settled into his body. By the time he woke up, everything had ended.

He parked in front of a bland building, just at the outskirts of Tokyo, far from the meddling crowd but not too far to attract attention. It was built perfectly to resemble like a small centre for a little company with not enough employees and even less funds to move into a better building. The underground parking lot resounded with the squeals of his tyres its echo grating on his strained nerves.

He parked his car closer to the elevator and once in it, pressed the top button, followed by a strict code that changed every forty-eight hours. Without it, the elevator wouldn't budge or it would move just until it reached the first floor where one would find the security, who would either ask you for your identification in a polite way or make sure you never cross that threshold ever again in a not so very polite way. Ichigo dared anybody to defy their security team.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, he was welcomed by a very anxious Keygo, who looked as if he hadn't slept in more than thirty hours and had too much coffee. A normal Keygo was very annoying, a coffee driven one drove Ichigo up the wall. His red t-shirt was smudged with ketchup and it would look funny if it weren't for his anxiousness almost palpable in the cold air of the office.

"You're late." His colleague snapped and then pushed Ichigo in the direction of their equivalent of a conference room.

"Normally, I would punch you in the face, but because you woke me up in the middle of the night, I could just kill you right now and the captain would blame it on the stress induced by the last mission." He said as a matter of fact.

"Shut up, you love me, you orange goof-ball." Ichigo raised a perfect eyebrow at that.

"I love you when you are quiet, Keygo which never happens actually."

"Shut up and just tell me who you were boning when I called."

"I wasn't boning anyone. Could you be more crude?"

"And could you be more prude?" Keygo reached for a cup on his desk and pushed it into his hands. "So details."

"I really wasn't sleeping with anyone."

"Oh, my God, who says sleeping with someone any more?!"

"Tone it down, idiot!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, grandpa." His colleague's face turned serious. "What were you doing then?"

"Sit ups." He answered and entered the conference room which was already filled up with people.

His captain, Shinji Hirako who usually grinned like a lunatic, was seriously overlooking some papers, so he barely nodded to Ichigo's Yo. His hair was kept into a messy pony tail and his pink shirt was all wrinkled, a clear sign that he hadn't been sleeping either. His IT guy, Chad, the best forger of paperwork with whom Ichigo had the pleasure of working with, was listening to some music and grunted a hello back. Orihime Inoue, their medical advisor and also the psychiatrist of the unit, was perky as usual and she was the only one who made small talk with him. Lisa Yadomaru, their information officer, was there as well and again several alarm bells rang into Ichigo's mind.

"So can someone explain me what the hell is going on?"

Shinji left the paperwork on his desk and sighed heavily.

"Six months ago, Byakuya Kuchiki moved to Karakura town."

"Shit." Ichigo took a gulp of the far too bitter coffee. "Byakuya freaking Ice Lord Kuchiki is in Karakura?"

"Yes. And three days ago, he and another madman that goes by the name of Mayuri Kurosatsuchi had an altercation. Mayuri is dead, his body showing signs of heavy torture and his operation has switched under a new commander." Shinji pinched his nose. "I wished I could have been able to bleach my own brain so I would forget those images, but let's just say Mayuri's death, although deserving, was far more painful than any human being should endure."

"Since when the Kuchiki clan makes moves on Karakura?"

"In case you have missed the memo, Kurosaki, they make moves everywhere they please."

"I know, remember? I was freaking there." The only way Kenpachi had been able to rule over Osaka in that line of business was because the Kuchiki clan had in fact allowed it and for that Kenpachi paid every month a hefty tax for it. But he was all right with that because he knew that so long as he would do it properly, the Kuchiki clan would ensure his dealings were left alone. Nobody dared to mess with them. They were probably the worst thing that ever happened to the underground mob and even Yakuza stayed the hell out of their way.

"I know." Shinji answered, a flicker of something passing through his eyes before he looked around the room. "Lisa, hit us with some info."

The picture of a man in mid thirties appeared on the screen, his raven hair falling to his shoulders, grey eyes colder the whole ice in the world, dressed in a suit appeared on the white screen of the room. Ichigo would normally find him attractive, with his broad shoulders and aristocratic air about him, if it weren't for those really icy eyes. He was talking on the phone and two other people were in the background watching his every move. One was a petite woman, with the same raven hair and the same grey eyes, poised and dressed in a purple silk shirt and dark trousers, and holding some documents. She would look like a business woman if it weren't for her very hard face, her knowing eyes seemingly scanning the people around them.

The other person was a man in his thirties as well, with bright red hair and tribal tattoos all the way to his forehead. He was dressed in a white shirt, its sleeves rolled up, and some elegant trousers. His hands were painted black as well and his muscles were a clear indication of a person who would use them to mean all the harm in the world. His ridiculously small brown eyes looked defiantly at a passer by, while he was keeping a hand in the pocket and the other holding some keys. The other goons in the background were of no concern to Ichigo.

"Byakuya Kuchiki, thirty-five, also known as the Ice Lord, for how 'nice' he treats his victims." Lisa's ironic tone droned on. "He is involved in heavy drug trafficking and money laundry. Aside, he holds various fractions that are involved in underground fights, human slavery, prostitution and God knows what else. He moved to Karakura six months ago, after his grandfather passed away. Apparently he loved his origins and decided to make it the head quarters of his illegal empire."

Lisa took a sip of coffee and proceeded:

"The woman is his sister, Rukia Kuchiki, twenty-eight, the book-keeper of their horrendous family affair, but also very fierce. Last year, when Sajin The Wolf Komamura had the bad idea of attacking them, she cut off one of his arms and then fed it to her dogs. They say though that Sajin lost something far more precious that night than his hand." The captain made a lewd gesture before she was able to continue: "She is incredibly loyal to her brother and they saved each other's life more than one can count. The other guy is Renji Abarai, thirty-one, Kuchiki's right hand. He served in their family since he was a child and he is incredibly protective of them. This guy rules with an iron fist as well and it is very rare that his master needs to intervene. Komamura's men were dead before they even knew it."

"Okay, so all these people are incredibly dangerous, fucking evil and they rule over everyone from Osaka to Tokyo to Karakura. What this has got to do with us?"

"Kurosaki, I present you your new mission." There was something utterly bitter in the captain's voice when he said that. But Ichigo had little sympathy for him right now.

"Excuse me?"

"Look, I don't like it more than you do, but the higher ups are sick and tired of this guy eluding them for more then ten years and although they are very much aware that getting that close to him is almost impossible, they still want to tear down as much as possible from his empire."

"How about telling them to fuck off?" Ichigo snaps. "Captain, they caught the last undercover cop that they sent and you know what they did to him? They tortured him for a whole month and when they finally inflicted all the possible pain that you can inflict upon a human being, they sent the recorded sessions to his family before they buried him alive. I'm sorry if I'm not thrilled to be going against this guy."

"Kurosaki, I am well aware of this, but there is nothing I can do. We need to send someone or these guys will rule the entire Japan in a matter of years."

"They already are, so might as well let them." Ichigo drank the rest of the coffee and then scowled at Shinji and Keygo. "This is why you called me here? To tell me that I've just been put in front of the firing squad?"

"Look, Ichigo," Keygo pushed the paperwork in front of him, "nobody wants you to do this. But here are the facts: these guys are monsters and unless someone stops them, they will eat us alive soon enough. You are the best agent that our squad has and there is no one else who could do this. Besides, no offence but you are kind of perfect for the mission."

"Perfect for the mission? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't have any family left to see recordings of you being tortured." Orihime answered, her voice hoarse with emotion and a heavy silence settled in the room. Ichigo pinched his nose and tried to ignore the pain hammering his heart.

"What's the plan?" He finally muttered. At least if he was dead, he would be able to see his family again and stop this wretched ache in his heart. Living without them was as if all the light and colours have been sucked out of life and there was nothing but grey left. "Because since you called me here at this hour, I assume you've done your homework extensively and you want me to move as fast as possible there."

"You need to become one of his goons." Lisa said as a matter of fact and annoyance flashed over Ichigo's face.

"Look, if we are to catch this guy, let's face it, it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be done the traditional way. I have to look like I don't want anything to do with their business and even more, like I don't want to be part of it. The more reluctant I will be, the more believable it will seem for him. Besides, I will never be more than a lowly goon, even if I want to enter the clan. Thy are ruled by family and the business stays in the family. I need another way in."

"It's your mission now. You decide." The captain leaned in his chair.

"Very well. Chad, give me all you can find out about this Abarai guy. I need to know what he drinks, what he eats and how many times a day he pisses. He will be my entry in the clan." Chad grunted affirmative and left the room with a new purpose shining into his usually subdued eyes. "Orihime, I need all the psychiatric evaluations that you can make of these three based on what we know about them.

"Already on it."

"Lisa, I will let you know, once I find out more about them, what new identity should be created for me. Don't call me again until you have all that and in the mean time, I need all the files on the Kuchikis and this Abarai guy."

He left without looking back and ignoring Keygo's calls. He really wasn't in the mood for chit chat. The problem was that he was perversely happy to go into a new mission and forget about his goddamn empty life. Everything was wiped out in that car accident and he tried to pick up pieces of it ever since. Broken pieces that didn't match anything in him any more. He was constantly feeling like he was trying to work with puzzle pieces that were all made not to fit and wasn't that ironic?

Since that day, he had constantly been looking in the mirror only to see a stranger looking back. As if along with the death of his father and his two sisters, everything had been wiped out inside of him, leaving nothing behind. His mother had died just two years before, a victim in a robbery gone wrong. Even now, after so many years, it felt as if they had been cursed and Ichigo had been left behind to carry the burden of it ever since.

The dawn caught him back in his miserable apartment, almost nothing screaming his name. There was just a mattress on the floor, with a lamp next to it and some paperwork array. His few possessions were hidden in a small closet, while the kitchen held exactly one glass, one bowl and a bunch of cutlery that he almost never used.

Ichigo Kurosaki had died three years ago and now only his ghost was living in his place, sucking the little energy that he had left. Perhaps one day he would merely rest his weary body and he would die at last.

He poured himself some sake and took the files that Keygo gave him. He was going to find out everything about this Ice Lord and he was going to make sure that if he was going to die in this mission, that he would take the poor bastard with him.

A week later, Ichigo Shinamori was moving back to Karakura to occupy a new position as a nurse in a free clinic in a very poor neighbourhood in Karakura, where almost all the members of the Kuchiki clan were going when they were stabbed, shot or maimed in any other way. The free clinic was ran by a guy called Kensei Muguruma, ex-military doctor, who now loved to impart his knowledge with the grateful poor and not so grateful mobsters. Because if you were part of the Kuchiki clan and you were presenting yourself with a gun shot wound to ER, most likely you were going to be arrested on the spot. Free clinics like Muguruma's were perfect for these guys to save their asses and then going back to whatever they were doing.

Ichigo rented a studio flat that looked like at some point some cockroaches made it their house and never left. He was going to appear like he was short of money but not desperate, who could afford living on his own, but still needed a miserable job whatever that might be. Ichigo had medical training, but Ichigo Shinamori was a med student that didn't manage to graduate due to the tragedy of his family, a guy who had been an illegal fighter for Kenpachi for a while and who then had moved from town to town after he found out about the raid that the police had done in Osaka.

Ichigo Shinamori wanted to forget all about the illegal fights and the pain and perhaps of something more, so he was going to be Muguruma's nurse because the guy really needed someone to step in and from their conversation over the phone, the curt responses were still tinged with gratefulness.

Ichigo was going to be a normal person that owned furniture and a bed and some old books that Orihime managed to buy for him at the last minute. He was going to give his report every two weeks and under no circumstance he was going to enter this clan. The approach needed to be extremely different on this occasion.

Two days later, he started to work for Muguruma who was always brief in his instructions, never friendly, a surly air constantly surrounding him. They tended to poor people, who couldn't normally afford a medic, old people left behind by their families or children who soon would become foot soldiers for the Kuchikis and the likes of them. For that though, there was a huge amount of paperwork to fill and he and the other nurse, Mashiro Kuna could barely fend off. There was radio silence for almost a month but Ichigo hadn't expected anything to happen any time soon. The field work always requested a huge amount of patience and an incredible control of emotions. He was going to wait, because something was bound to happen soon.

He wasn't disappointed. Almost a month and half into his assignment, Ichigo finally met the members of the Kuchiki clan although not in the way that he expected.

He was drinking his coffee, his eyes closed trying to forget about how horrible the day had been, when he heard Muguruma calling him.

"Shinamori, get your ass in here now!"

"What the hell, old man?" He snapped when he got into the waiting room, but as soon as he saw the two bleeding men, he snapped into his professional mode. "What happened?" Muguruma was bent over a bald guy who was bleeding all over the upholstery, while grinning manically. The other guy was still held by the one and only Renji Abarai.

"That's not your problem. Just cure them and mind your own business." Abarai snapped at him and almost instantly Ichigo felt his hackles raised.

"I didn't ask what has happened specifically, pineapple head." Abarai spluttered while the bleeding guy that he was holding actually started to giggle. "For all I care, they both slipped on a banana peel and fell into a knife. I just need to know some specifics so I can treat them.

"Do you know who the fuck I am, punk?"

"Right now? I don't give a fuck, but if I would take a guess, I would say an annoying asshole that right now stands between me helping his bleeding friends and the said bleeding friends." Ichigo scowled. Showing back bone from the very beginning would later gain him some respect. The red haired look like he was about to have a heart attack, while his friend was dissolving into giggles.

"Now listen up, bastard-"

"Later!" Ichigo interrupted him and looked at the bleeding shoulder of the guy. "What's your name?" He asked all professional and knowing that he will come to blows with the right hand of the Kuchiki clan.

"Yumichika." Ichigo's heart stuttered. If this was indeed that guy, then these two were the famous hitmen: Madarame Ikkaku and Yumichika Ayasegawa, one of the most formidable pair that he had ever heard of. Jesus, he was so going to die in this mission.

"Well, Yumichika, apart from the very obvious wound to your shoulder, do you have any other that I should know of?"

"No, my friend got it worse, but Kensei-chan is already taking care of it."

"I thought I told you not to call me that!" He could hear the doctor yell from the other room.

"Okay, then step in here." Yumichika smiled at him as soon as he sat down on the chair in the other consultancy room. Abarai mumbled something and left them alone and Ichigo was none too glad to see him gone.

"All right, doctor, I confess I am actually surprised to see someone standing up to Renji-kun. Thank you for the show."

"I am here to serve." He smiled tightly as he gathered all that he needed. "And I am not a doctor, I didn't finish medical school."

"Oh, man, Ikkaku was lucky then, although I got the pretty one. What's your name?"

"Ichigo."

"Ichigo?"

"Yes, and if I hear some joke about my name, I swear I will drop peroxide on your wound. Now we wouldn't want that, would we?" Ichigo concentrated on the wound, a rather nasty cut, which was still bleeding but looked not too life threatening.

"You aren't from around here, are you, Ichigo?"

"No, what gave it away?"

"The way you spoke to Renji-kun. A friendly advice though. Try not to make it a habit."

Ichigo looked up at that, straight into the eyes of a possible murderer and said slowly:

"I would rather suggest he didn't make a habit out of it. I am not responding well to such behaviour. And when I say I don't give a shit about who he is, I literally mean that. Now would you rather speak about that freaking asshole or would you rather I concentrate more on your wound and give you the good kind of pills?" Ichigo winked at him and the other man giggled again.

"Ichigo-kun, I think I might like you already."

Half an hour later, Yumichika was back in the waiting room with Abarai waiting for Ikkaku to be patched up, while Ichigo cleaned the room. By the time he finished, Kensei was already done as well, and together they finished cleaning everything up before the doctor sent him home. Feeling dead on his feet, Ihcigo was actually quite grateful to be able to leave.

He wasn't surprised though to see a slick car still waiting outside the clinic and a few passers by watched anxiously as Ichigo approached it, for he knew they were waiting for him The red haired was expecting him, all cocky confidence and power to back him up. However, if that asshole was going to start a fight with him, he had another thing coming if he thought that Ichigo was just going to take it. Still, he didn't want to get into a struggle with the guy because that pretty much was going to ruin all his plans.

"You really aren't from around here, Ichigo Shinamori, are you?" Abarai said as soon as Ichigo stepped in front of him, as if ready to protect himself but not backing down, which probably said a lot in Abarai's world.

"What is it with people saying that?" He rolled his eyes and then passed his fingers through his hair. He shouldn't be surprised that his name was already known. "No, I just moved here, and before you tell me that I should know who you are, I will tell you that no, I don't know who you are, I don't care who you are and frankly if you are going to punch me, I'd rather you'd do it now, because I've worked twelve hours straight, I am tired, I smell like vomit because I had two people actually puking on me and I am just about to face plant on this sidewalk."

The sudden laugh was definitely not the reaction he was expecting from the red haired, nor was the clap on his shoulder.

"You are an interesting guy, Shinamori. Go home and crash into your bed. There will be plenty of days to exchange punches with me." The hand on his shoulder abruptly tensed, gripping tight and almost painful. Abarai's eyes flashed dangerously. "I suggest though you find out who I am, punk, so we don't encounter the same issue next time. For the benefit of both parts."

Ichigo nodded curtly before the red haired let go of his shoulder.

"And you should stop by The Red Sakura. Yumichika wants to buy you sake and find out all the gossip there is to know about you."

"I am afraid already."

"You should be. Yumichika is a terrible gossiper."

"Hey, I heard that." It was Abarai's turn to roll his eyes.

"That was the plan all along. See you around, orange brat." Abarai grinned maniacally and then got in the car, leaving Ichigo on the sidewalk and thinking he just struck gold.